US president Donald Trump has ordered a five-day postponement of threatened military strikes against power plants and energy infrastructure in Iran after what he claimed were “very good and productive conversations” between the US and Iran, reports Al Jazeera. Tehran denied the claim and said no talks were held, says the Guardian. Trump’s claim sent “markets ripping”, says Axios. Oil prices dropped by more than 11% on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Another Bloomberg article says oil markets saw a “trading spike” about 15 minutes before Trump made the announcement on Truth Social.

Reuters reports that major oil executives and energy ministers have “expressed growing concern over the long-term effects of the US-Israel war with Iran on the global economy”. US energy secretary Chris Wright, meanwhile, says that global oil prices have not risen high enough to impact demand, according to another Reuters article. Japan is due to begin its “biggest-ever release of oil from its strategic reserves this week”, reports the Guardian. 

Countries continue to respond to the crisis in different ways. Many countries in Asia are “turning to coal” amid disruptions to oil and gas deliveries, says the Associated Press. The Daily Telegraph adds that the “coal resurgence” is expected to be largest in countries with domestic production, “such as China and India”. Ireland’s government has agreed to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel until the end of May, reports RTÉ. US food delivery company DoorDash is planning a weekly payment for gig workers to offset the rising cost of fuel, reports Reuters. Airline EasyJet says ticket prices will rise towards the end of this summer, says another Reuters article. Vietnam Airlines is temporarily suspending some domestic flights due to fuel shortages and rising prices, reports Bloomberg. 

MORE ON ENERGY

• Trump has claimed that the US could “jointly control” the still-blocked Strait of Hormuz with Iran, reports the Daily Telegraph.
• Bloomberg looks at “how Iran has effectively closed” the Strait. 
• Al Jazeera explains strategic oil reserves and looks at which countries hold them.
• The Guardian reports, based on an interview with the head of an industry group: “Europe’s ‘staggering’ clean-power gains undermined by failure to phase out fuel-burning machines.” 

The Trump administration will pay French energy giant TotalEnergies almost $1bn to “pull out of offshore wind in the US and invest instead in oil and gas production, as it tries to boost supplies of fossil fuels”, says the Financial Times. The newspaper explains that the company will be reimbursed the $928m cost of two offshore wind leases “in exchange for the company cancelling the leases and spending the money instead on producing oil and gas” in the US. The Associated Press says: “Environmental groups denounced the deal as an alternate way to block wind projects, with one group calling it a ‘billion-dollar bribe’ to kill clean energy.” The New York Times adds: “The deal is an extraordinary transfer of taxpayer dollars to a foreign company for the purposes of boosting the production of fossil fuels, a main driver of climate change, while throttling offshore wind power.” The story has been covered by other outlets including the Guardian, Independent and Le Monde. 

MORE ON US 

• The Guardian: “California sues Trump energy department over revival of controversial oil pipeline.”

The US state of Hawaii is dealing with the aftermath of the “worst flooding the islands have seen in more than 20 years”, reports the Guardian. The newspaper notes that heavy rains and floods over the weekend forced thousands of people to evacuate and swept through homes, cars, farms and shops. It adds: “The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say.” The Associated Press says that no deaths have been reported but more than 230 people were rescued. USA Today highlights photos and videos showing the scale of the floods. 

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• The Associated Press reports on a “gigantic heat dome” in the south-west US which is “creeping eastward and may end up being one of the most expansive heatwaves in American history”.
• The Independent: “What is a ‘super El Niño’? Scientists predict record-breaking climate event this year.”

Developers in England will need to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes from 2028, reports BBC News, based on updated government planning requirements. Plug-in solar panels that can be placed on balconies will also be sold in supermarkets in the coming months, says the broadcaster, adding that while these are used in many parts of Europe, they are “not currently sold in the UK due to safety regulations”. Bloomberg says that this could help cut electricity bills “as they can be directly connected to the mains power within a home” and would particularly benefit renters. The Press Association reports: “It is the latest in a series of announcements from the government doubling down on its clean-energy drive in response to the Iran war which has sent fossil-fuel prices soaring.” The Guardian notes, however, that the government had “relented on plans for [even] more stringent rules” for new homes “under pressure from housebuilders”.

Meanwhile, the government has dismissed calls from a North Sea lobby group to produce more oil and gas in the North Sea, reports the Guardian. The newspaper says: “The industry group, Offshore Energies UK, has said the UK ‘urgently’ needs a greater supply of domestically produced energy or consumers will be left ‘more exposed to global volatility and higher emissions’.” It notes that a government spokesperson says that issuing new North Sea licences “cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills”. BBC News quotes Offshore Energies UK chief executive David Whitehouse as saying: “We urgently need greater supplies of secure, domestically produced energy including oil and gas, which will remain a critical part of the UK energy system and economy for decades.” The Times, Press Association, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and others also carry the story. 

UK ministers are considering support for household bills next winter, the Guardian reports.  The newspaper reports that prime minister Keir Starmer “indicated he would prefer to focus any taxpayer-funded help on the poorest households, rather than an expensive universal bailout”. Starmer also says the government “may consider expanding the powers of the competition regulator to ​tackle price gouging ​and profiteering in the energy ⁠market”, according to Reuters. Referring to a government emergency plan drawn up in 2024 that has not been invoked, the Daily Express claims that a lower national speed limit could be introduced to save on fuel. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to deliver a statement this afternoon outlining plans to “tackle price hikes driven by the war in Iran, which has seen the cost of oil and gas soar”, says Sky News. 

MORE ON UK 

• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will “force a vote” in parliament today on the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea, says the Daily Telegraph.
• UK growth could “halve this year” due to the US-Israel war on Iran, reports Bloomberg. 
• The Times: “British homeowners rush to install solar panels amid Iran conflict.”
• The Press Association reports that diesel prices in the UK have hit a “three-year high”.

Chinese premier Li Qiang said in a speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing that China will further “widen market access for the services sector” and increase imports of “low-carbon services” to provide more business opportunities for foreign companies, reports Bloomberg. Li Gao, China’s vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), said at the forum that China will advance the building of a “Beautiful China”, accelerate technological and financial support for green and low-carbon development and lead global environmental and climate governance, reports the state-run China Economic Times.

The Financial Times reports that discussions of “Chinese overcapacity and the risks for European industry” took place at a dinner held by China’s vice premier He Lifeng with European executives in Beijing. Zheng Shanjie, head of China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said in a meeting with Volkswagen’s Oliver Blume that China welcomes and supports automakers in accelerating low-carbon transformation and upgrading of the auto sector, reports energy news outlet International Energy Net. China and Europe’s relationship in the field of electric vehicles (EVs) is “entering a new phase that demands profound strategic wisdom – an era of mutual learning”, according to an opinion article by the state-supporting newspaper Global Times.

MORE ON CHINA

• Reuters reports that Chinese oil major Sinopec reported a 37% decline in 2025 net profit, citing “rising substitution by new energy sources”.
• China is limiting the oil price hike to about half of “what would normally be applied under the government’s pricing mechanism”, reports Reuters.
• Nikkei Asia reports Chinese firms are racing to mass-produce lightweight “perovskite” solar cells, a low-cost, high-efficiency technology.
• China’s “soil functions in climate change mitigation” are improving, according to People’s Daily.
• Chen Zhenlin, director of the China Meteorological Administration, writes in People’s Daily that China will strengthen its response to extreme weather events.
• Lü Zhongmei, with the NPC’s environment committee, writes in People’s Daily that China’s environmental code offers insights into global sustainable development.

The disruption to fertiliser trade caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz arrived in the “four-week window when farmers in the northern hemisphere apply nitrogen to their crops”, writes Chris Krebs, founder of the Krebs Stamos Group and former director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in the Financial Times. Krebs notes: “Gulf states account for 49% of globally traded urea and 30% of ammonia, perishable contributors to the nitrogen cycle that makes high-yield agriculture possible…Corn planting estimates are already being revised down as farmers rotate towards soyabeans, which don’t require added nitrogen.” He writes in the newspaper that if fertiliser ingredients are not moving through the Strait in two weeks, “we won’t be debating any more, we’ll be sending in aid”. He concludes: “If it’s not moving in four weeks, we’ll be managing instability. It’s time to act on the agricultural calendar, not the diplomatic one.” 

MORE COMMENT 

• Andrew Freedman, senior reporter at CNN Climate, writes about a UN World Meteorological Organization report, saying that the “findings should be jarring reminders of planetary vital signs flashing red. But similar observations were made last year … and the year before that.”

Nils Gilman, historian and senior advisor to the California-based thinktank the Berggruen Institute, writes in Foreign Policy that “China is building a new green bloc, while the United States is doubling down on oil”. Gilman writes: “This is an ecological cold war, and it differs from its predecessor in ways that matter enormously…On one side, the Green Entente: China and an emerging electrostate bloc, which has bet its industrial future on solar panels, batteries, and the vast mineral supply chains that feed them. On the other, the Axis of Petrostates: the United States under Trump, Russia, and the Gulf monarchies, which have staked their power and fiscal survival on prolonging the fossil fuel era and weaponising energy abundance against those who would end it.”

In further comment relating to the Iran war, Guardian financial editor Nils Pratley writes that the “notion that the UK was better prepared for an energy crisis is fanciful”. Breakingviews columnist Jennifer Johnson writes in Reuters that potential “backsliding on green energy commitments” in Europe in response to the crisis “could mean the least-bad solution to the electricity problem – a flood of green power projects to remove the baleful influence of volatile gas over power prices – doesn’t ⁠happen as ​quickly”. 

In the UK, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has another Daily Telegraph comment in which she writes: “Turning our backs on the North Sea is an act of lunacy.” A Daily Telegraph editorial says: “The war in the Gulf has not only exposed the lack of preparedness of our Armed Forces but highlighted the insanity of our energy policy.” Finally, contributing editor at the Daily Telegraph, Dia Chakravarty, writes that against the backdrop of soaring fossil-fuel prices, “it is extremely difficult to see how the chancellor can proceed with the planned reversal of the 5p cut on fuel duty”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Orla Dwyer, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Simon Evans.